Thanks Andrew. I’m not a lens snob and sharpness is not what I primarily look for in a lens but the thing is, pretty much every image from my copy of the 35-70mm requires some lengthy PP, it really does. Every image I’ve posted so far on the challenge has had to be subject to some time consuming sharpening, masking, clarity, noise reduction saturation and fringing correction, I’ve really had to boost these files as much as I can. And this is when the iso is at 100(!?). Shooting at night, even at slow shutter speeds, is a no-no.
And what does this have to do whether one likes an image or not? Nothing of course. But when you’re used to lenses from whatever brand that render fine out of the box and don’t need that level of PP, then getting the most out of the 35-70 is indeed a challenge.